$MSFT announces the next update for its Office software named Office 2019. This update, which will be released in 2H18, will include the already existing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint applications. Also, Office 2019 is designed for customers who aren't using Microsoft's cloud services. Previews of Office 19 will be shipped in mid-year 2018.

$MSFT join hands with $ACN and Avanade to offer advanced cybersecurity solutions. This multiyear, multimillion-dollar partnership will provide cyberdefense solutions to clients to detect, investigate and respond to cyberthreats. In 2017, Accenture and Avanade have been named as Microsoft Alliance SI Partner of the Year, for the 10th year in a row.

Professional services company $ACN has entered into a
multi-year multi-million partnership with $MSFT and Avanade to develop enhanced
cyber defense solutions to help clients detect, investigate and respond to
cyber threats. The collaboration is extension of a strategic relationship among the firms, which began in 2000.

$ADBE entered into a strategic partnership with $MSFT in 3Q17, which will complement both of the companies cloud offerings. Customer wins in the quarter included Adidas, HSBC, Kellogg’s, Marks & Spencer and University of Maryland.

$MSFT appointed $PEP's CFO Hugh Johnston to its Board of Directors, effective immediately. He will also be the member of Board's audit committee. He will be 13th Board member of Microsoft. Additionally, the current Board member Mason Morfit will not seek re-election to the Board and his term expires at the annual shareholders meeting in November.

$MSFT increased its quarterly dividend by $0.03 or 7.6% to $0.42 per share. The dividend is payable on Dec. 14, 2017 to shareholders of record as of Nov. 16, 2017. The ex-dividend date will be Nov. 15, 2017.

$MSFT said Microsoft Azure IP Advantage will be available in China beginning Oct. 1, 2017. This ensures that Azure customers in China can enjoy the same great IP protection benefits as customers in the rest of the world. In China, $MSFT has partnered with 21Vianet to deliver Microsoft Azure services to its customers since March 2014.

$MSFT helps $SLB in digitizing their oil and gas drilling business. Schlumberger introduced the DrillPlan, its digital well construction planning solution, which will use Microsoft Azure and the Azure Stack hybrid cloud solution. Microsoft is currently working with Schlumberger on several other apps.

$MSFT and $FB join hands in creating Open Neural Network Exchange (ONNX), a new opensource project. ONNX will help AI developers to switch between opensource frameworks like Cognitive Toolkit, PyTorch, and Caffe2.

$MSFT and $ADBE extend their partnerships around their cloud services Microsoft Teams and Adobe Sign. Microsoft Teams, which competes with Slack, will be the preferred collaboration service for the Adobe's cloud services. Adobe Sign will become the preferred e-signature tool for Microsoft. The first integrations are expected in the coming weeks.

$MSFT and $AMZN enters into a partnership to integrate their digital voice assistants Cortana and Alexa respectively. Microsoft will be able to activate Amazon's Alexa and Alexa will be integrated with Microsoft's Cortana. The two other notable digital voice assistants are $AAPL's SIRI and $GOOG's Google Assistant.

$AMZN and $MSFT plan to integrate the functions of their Alexa and
Cortana devices by late 2017. This will enable Alexa customers to access
Cortana’s unique features like booking meetings or accessing work calendars using
only voice. Similarly, Cortana customers can ask Alexa to control their smart
home devices or shop on Amazon.com.

$GME, which sells $AAPL's products through its Simply Mac stores, reiterated its FY17 EPS outlook of $3.10-3.40. Same store sales expected at the high end of previous outlook of -5.0% to 0.0% and sales to be -2.0% to 2.0%. For 2H17, the Nintendo Switch and the launch of $MSFT’s Xbox One X is expected to drive growth in the video game category.

$MSFT and $RHT expand their existing partnership in the area of Windows Server containers and SQL Server. Under this partnership, Microsoft will be adding Windows support in Red Hat OpenShift, OpenShift Dedicated on Azure and SQL Server support in OpenShift and Red Hat Linux.

$MSFT and $HAL made a strategic alliance to drive digital transformation across the oil and gas industry. Microsoft Azure will become Halliburton’s preferred public cloud provider for iEnergy, an E&P network and ecosystem of customers, developers, and suppliers.

The Redmond-based tech giant $MSFT acquires cloud computing orchestration firm Cycle Computing for an undisclosed amount. The combination of Cycle Computing, which was founded in 2005, and Microsoft Azure is expected to “open up many new possibilities” for Microsoft's partners and other companies using Azure.

$MMM, a technology company, announced that Amy Hood, EVP and CFO of $MSFT has been elected to 3M's BoD, effective Aug 13, 2017. At Microsoft, Hood is responsible for looking after acquisitions, treasury activities, accounting and internal audit, in a position she has held since July 2013. She will serve on the 3M board's finance committee.

$AXXN
has appointed Mojtaba Solgi as Senior Research Scientist and Team Leader. Most recently, Solgi served Uber as a Senior
Tech Lead. Earlier, he associated with $MSFT as a scientist, researching
geospatial machine learning.